Friday, August 11, 2017

UMNO is now hell-bent on serving
only Malays. After all the Malays now form about 60% of the population and UMNO
is going to increase the figure to 90% if not 99.99%. UMNO wants to make sure
Malaysia is turned to a country just for the Malays.

The non-Malays can “balik negeri”
(go back to their ancestral lands). After all, the Malayan peninsula was dubbed
Tanah Melayu, not Tanah Cina, not Tanah India, not even Tanah Asli. Never mind that the term “Melayu” is more a
political construct than a tribal grouping (like the Orang Asli) - since Malays
comprise a diverse mix of genetics ranging from Austronesian, Micronesian,
Sulawesian, Javanese, and Sumatran to Cambodian, Chinese, Thai, Filipino,
Burmese, Indian, Turkish, Yemeni, and Arab. In the last century, a generous
amount of Anglo-European DNA has also been added to the cocktail.

Indeed, the name Malaya derives not
so much from being the Land of Malays as it does from the Tamil word for
mountain, malai. As recently as 13,000
years ago, you could walk from what is now Peninsular Malaysia to Sumatra and
Java. As the last glacial period ended, around 10,800 BCE, the sea level rose as
much as 360 feet, creating what colonial geographers call the Malay
Archipelago. In effect, Tanah Melayu is merely an unfounded claim – so long as
a single Orang Asli insists he or she is NOT Melayu. Which is why the Orang
Asli Affairs Department (JAKOA) has taken on the mission of systematically
“assimilating” the Orang Asli through conversion to Islam. An anthropologist
wryly noted that the Malays want the Orang Asli to become Malays – so they
themselves can lay claim to being Orang Asli!

The fact that the United Malays
Nationalist Organisation is better known as UMNO than Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu
Bersatu or PKMB reveals its colonial origins. The British worked out a deal
with the Malay aristocracy, represented by Tunku Abdul Rahman, which would
grant a semblance of political independence to Malaya – while allowing Britain
to retain a firm grip on Malaya’s rich natural resources.

In short, UMNO was founded on a
gigantic deception. That’s why they tend to spend so much energy and money on
propaganda, hype and braggadocio, to cover up their deep-seated insecurity.
Originally, the bulk of UMNO members were schoolteachers, junior civil
servants, fishermen and farmers. By the time the party was declared illegal by
Justice Harun Hashim in February 1988, it was largely populated by contractors,
small entrepreneurs, and professional rent-seekers.

In its new incarnation as UMNO BARU,
it became an extension of Mahathir Mohamad’s insatiable lust for wealth and the
power it brings. A breed of instant Bumi billionaires was artificially created
by Mahathir, with the help of his finance minister Daim Zainuddin, as a
personal power base. This gave rise to the UMNOputra or nouveau riche ruling
elite who began to taste the intoxication of seemingly limitless wealth,
luxury, and political influence. Every UMNO warlord who made his first million
desired to imitate the regal lifestyles of the Sultans – so they went on to
making their first billion - or, rather, stealing it.

To maintain their grip on the
national purse-strings, they needed the unquestioning support of the rural
Malays, whom they began to deliberately dumb-down by manipulating the education
system and controlling the mass media. Having replaced English with Malay as
the medium of instruction, they realized the advantages of effectively keeping
the rural Malays monolingual and monocultural – insulated from outside
influences and sheep-like in their religious indoctrination.

The various stages of UMNO’s
strategy

Initially UMNO sought independence
with the support of all the races. The British taught them how to divide and
rule by establishing race-based political parties like the Malayan Chinese
Association (MCA) and Malayan Indian Congress (MIC). There weren’t enough
Eurasians to warrant a Malayan Eurasian Party; and the humble Orang Asli were a
long way from demanding their own political lobby.

For the first ten years, the nation
progressed smoothly and grew into a larger political federation with the
inclusion of Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo (now Sabah). It didn’t take
long for the Malay elite to realize that with Singapore’s entry into the
equation, the Chinese community would become much larger than they felt
comfortable with. Lee Kuan Yew’s vision of a powerful modern state driven by
business acumen, drawing on vast natural resources, and cosmopolitan in outlook
stirred deep unease among the UMNO elite.

They knew the Chinese would soon
control the economy – as they already did the urban areas – and the Malays
would be at a severe disadvantage, because of their strong attachment to
traditions which made them reluctant to embrace globalism - unlike the Chinese,
Indians and Eurasians who, as migrant races, were far more open to foreign ideas.
Singapore had to be expelled before the Yellow Peril could take root.

Abdul Razak Hussein

In 1969 a cabal of educated
middle-class Malays in UMNO were seized by chauvinistic fervor. They became
impatient to wrest power from the traditional elite, the Anglophilic Malay aristocracy
symbolized by Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Their own Sultans were so enamored of British culture, they often spent more time in London visiting the Queen than in their own states. Indeed, Sultan Abu Bakar of Johore was rumored to have been Queen Victoria’s secret paramour, and in the UK he preferred to be called Albert Baker.

Stirring up existing tensions
between the Chinese and Malays was easily accomplished and this led to an
outbreak of racial violence triggered by UMNO’s poor showing in the first
nationwide elections held on 10 May 1969. This was the golden opportunity the
young Malay nationalist cabal led by Razak Hussein had been awaiting. If the
riots had been a spontaneous eruption of racial animosities, the police and
military forces could have established a strict curfew and brought the violence
under control within 48 hours. Instead, the killings were allowed to go on for
several weeks with a total loss of life and property that has never been fully
tallied.

With Razak Hussein taking over from
Tunku Abdul Rahman, UMNO began to remake the nation after its own chauvinistic
and opportunistic image. The New Economic Policy was introduced, followed by a
National Cultural Policy aimed at sidelining “foreign” cultures. Soon the Biro
Tatanegara (National Ideology Bureau) was initiated to indoctrinate civil
servants with the spurious concept of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy).

Taib Mahmud

In Sarawak where the robber baron
Taib Mahmud reigned unchallenged as Chief Minister for 32 years, UMNO was
unable to gain a foothold. With a majority population of Orang Asal (indigenous
tribes) – many of whom were Christianized by missionaries during the days of
Rajah Brooke – the only way UMNO could make its oppressive presence felt was
through attempts to turn them into Malays, just as they have been doing with
the peninsular Orang Asli. To achieve this, UMNO had to first discourage them
from practicing Christianity – hence the brouhaha over the use of Allah in the
Malay-language Bible or Alkitab.

Even as hollow slogans like
“1Malaysia” were coined at enormous expense, UMNO’s apartheid mentality has
become increasingly obnoxious and overt – especially since losing its
two-thirds parliamentary majority (again) in March 2008. Efforts to instigate a
fresh round of racial violence after the 12th general election quickly fizzled
out because Malaysians across the racial spectrum have become far more savvy
since the internet destroyed UMNO/BN’s absolute monopoly on newspapers and
television.

No longer is it possible to pretend
that it’s about Malays versus Chinese. Enough Malays have become educated and
well-traveled to realize that it’s really about integrity versus disintegrity.

Nothing to do with race or religion
– and even less to do with royalty, which most Malaysians have come to accept
as an unfortunate fact of life that can only be redressed when enough of us
view ourselves as Malaysians.

UMNO is not at all worried about the
brain drain - even though many who have migrated elsewhere include a large
number of Malays, the ones with ability, intelligence and integrity. After all,
UMNO depends entirely on compliant, semi-literate, rent-seeking Malays with an
inferiority complex to maintain its voter base – and, alas, there are still
vast numbers of these around, even after two generations of special privileges and
preferential treatment.

UMNO is bad by design and for a
purpose

Part of the post-1969 UMNO agenda
was to completely dominate the economy, making it difficult for non-Malays to
succeed in business. This UMNO attempted to achieve by setting up so many
bureaucratic obstacles that the non-Malay business community was compelled to
resort to bribery. Having accepted the bribes, they then turned around and
accused the Chinese of being a corrupting
influence. UMNO itself, of course, has acquired a species of magical immunity to
corruption – mainly by planting cronies in key law enforcement positions.

UMNO knows it is corrupt, dishonest,
arrogant and extravagant - but will never admit it. With the rise of an
educated, well-informed, urban middle class clamoring loudly for reform, UMNO’s
only response has been to revert to heavy-handed authoritarianism, clamping down
hard on dissent and setting loose the police on the political opposition and activists
– instead of on increasingly powerful crime syndicates, the real threats to
peace and security.

Even as Zionist Israelis learned
from the Nazis how to oppress the Palestinians, UMNO Malays have learned from
the Zionists how to go the whole hog towards fascistic Nazism. It appears that
the Great Transformer, Najib son of Razak, has only managed since 5 May 2013,
to transform Barisan Nasional into Barisan Nazional – with a little help, of
course, from a hand-picked Attorney-General, Home Minister, and Inspector-General of Police.

Published 3 November 2013 in Malaysia Chronicle [First posted 14 January 2014; reposted 18 September 2014 & 25 February 2016]

Monday, August 7, 2017

Ozric Tentacles (commonly known as the Ozrics) are an instrumental rock band from Somerset, England, whose music can loosely be described as psychedelic or space rock. Formed in 1984, the band has released more than 30 albums and become a cottage industry selling over a million albums worldwide despite never having major label backing.

The original lineup met on June 21, 1984, at the Stonehenge Free Festival and its name arose from discussions of hypothetical cereal brands (Malcolm Segments, Desmond Whisps, and Gordon Lumps are among the names that were considered). In the 1980s the band built a fanbase on the festival circuit, becoming particularly associated with the Glastonbury Festival, and made a series of cassette releases, sold at gigs and via a fan club.

Its first label release was Pungent Effulgent in 1989, which was also re-released in the early 2000s, packaged with Strangeitude. This was followed by Erpland (1990), an album dedicated to the Pongmaster, a character which appears on many of the band's album artworks. 1991 saw the Strangeitude LP. The track "Sploosh!" was used by BMW in an advertising campaign and became the band's only single. By 1993 the band had grossed over three million dollars, and its Jurassic Shift album reached the Top 20 of the UK Albums Chart.

The band has gone through myriad line-up changes, with Ed Wynne (guitar, keyboards) being the only constant presence since the beginning. Many members left to pursue more electronic music spin-off acts, such as Eat Static, Transglobal Underground, Nodens Ictus, Dubblehead and Moksha. Even Nick Van Gelder (aka Tig), drummer for Jamiroquai during the Emergency on Planet Earth era was once part of the Ozric Tentacles line up, contributing drums and songwriting on the original cassettes Tantric Obstacles and Erpsongs. Nevertheless, the band maintained its identity and continued with this prolific rate of albums throughout the 1990s, and into the new millennium. It also continued to tour extensively, releasing a live DVD in 2002 entitled Live at the Pongmaster's Ball.

The band is famous for its live performances, fronted for years by "Jumping Jon" Egan, who used to dance around the stage in a trance-like manner while playing a variety of flutes. Ozric Tentacles has long taken an audio-visual approach to live performance, with an integrated lighting and projections crew. As of February 2009, the lineup featured Ed Wynne (guitar, synths), Ed's wife Brandi Wynne (synths), Oliver Seagle (drums, percussion) and Vinny Shillito (bass).

Sunday, August 6, 2017

The first deployment of atomic weaponry in war: Hiroshima destroyed on 6 August 1945

The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. The two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.

The aftermath of "Little Boy" (code name for the atomic device that leveled Hiroshima)

Following a firebombing campaign that destroyed many Japanese cities, the Allies prepared for a costly invasion of Japan. The war in Europe ended when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on 8 May, but the Pacific War continued.

Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945, threatening Japan with "prompt and utter destruction." The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum. American airmen dropped Little Boy on the city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, followed by Fat Man over Nagasaki on 9 August.*

Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day.

Mushroom cloud over Nagasaki
as "Fat Man" is detonated
on 9 August 1945, killing at least
80,000 civilians

The Hiroshima prefecture health department estimated that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In a US estimate of the total immediate and short term cause of death, 15–20% died from radiation sickness, 20–30% from burns, and 50–60% from other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizeable garrison.

On 15 August, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan announced its surrender to the Allies, signing the Instrument of Surrender on 2 September, officially ending World War II. The bombings led, in part, to post-war Japan's adopting Three Non-Nuclear Principles, forbidding the nation from nuclear armament. The bombings' role in Japan's surrender and their ethical justification are still debated.

Isn't it ironic that Japan was forced to agree never to arm itself with nuclear weapons - even though it was clearly not the aggressor in this instance? Today the two most warlike nations with nuclear capability are the United States and Israel (an undeclared nuclear power).

*It was only after the war that the American public learned about Japan's efforts to bring the conflict to an end. Chicago Tribune reporter Walter Trohan, for example, was obliged by wartime censorship to withhold for seven months one of the most important stories of the war. In an article that finally appeared August 19, 1945, on the front pages of the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times-Herald, Trohan revealed that on January 20, 1945, two days prior to his departure for the Yalta meeting with Stalin and Churchill, President Roosevelt received a 40-page memorandum from General Douglas MacArthur outlining five separate surrender overtures from high-level Japanese officials. (The complete text of Trohan's article is in the Winter 1985-86 Journal, pp. 508-512.)

This memo showed that the Japanese were offering surrender terms virtually identical to the ones ultimately accepted by the Americans at the formal surrender ceremony on September 2 - that is, complete surrender of everything but the person of the Emperor. [Read the full report here.]